Mother-of-two, 48, facing £20,000 fine for painting her front door PINK says council rules are ’30 years out of date’

• Miranda Dickson, 48, painted her front door, in Edinburgh’s New Town, last year
• But council planners objected to new colour and insist it’s painted white gloss
• Ms Dickson, however, believes complaint is malicious and described it as ‘petty’

A mother-of-two who faces a £20,000 fine for painting her front door pink has blasted the council for their ‘out of date’ rules.

Miranda Dickson, 48, got the front door of her Georgian home professionally painted last year as part of a renovation.

The home, located in Edinburgh’s New Town, a World Heritage Conservation Site, was inherited by Ms Dickson in 2019 from her parents. 

But planners at the City of Edinburgh Council have objected to the new colour of the door and are now insisting it is painted white gloss.  

Miranda Dickson, 48, got the front door of her Georgian home professionally painted last year as part of a renovation

Ms Dickson, however, believes the complaint is malicious and described it as ‘petty’. 

She said her street, Drummond Place, is filled with brightly coloured front doors, and compared it to Notting Hill, in London, or Bristol.

Ms Dickson said: ‘There’s cities in the UK like Bristol, Notting Hill and Harrogate which are brightly coloured.

‘Coming home and seeing my front door gives me joy, I’m proud of it.

‘It’s my house, I own it. It’s not like I wanted to build a glass box.

‘Georgians loved pink – in that era all the windows were painted grey or black, and people had different coloured front doors.

‘I’ve had overwhelming support from people saying ‘it’s amazing’, and ‘it makes me smile’.’

But planners at the City of Edinburgh Council have objected to the new colour of the door and are now insisting it is painted white gloss

Instagrammers are often snapping pictures of the pink front door, which has its own account on the site.

But since planners at the City of Edinburgh Council have objected, Ms Dickson faces a £2,000 fine unless she removes the ‘unauthorised’ paint.

She could then be hit with a £20,000 fine if she is charged with an offence of breaching rules in the conservation area.

Ms Dickson said the order is out of synch with the City of Edinburgh Council’s own planning rules which say doors should be ‘muted’.

She joked she could paint the door a rainbow of ‘muted’ colours, and slammed a ‘Farrow and Ball attitude’ towards heritage.

She said: ‘I don’t want to paint it white, I’ll paint it dark red.

‘People are saying ‘why don’t you paint it a rainbow of muted colours’.

Ms Dickson said the order is out of synch with the City of Edinburgh Council’s own planning rules which say doors should be ‘muted’

‘In a world where we are supposed to be open minded and after all the stuff we’ve been through the past two years, I thought people would be more community minded.

‘They are saying they haven’t received any complaints about other brightly coloured doors in New Town and saying it should be an ‘appropriate’ colour.

‘Appropriate to whom?

‘Do we feel as a society that what was appropriate 30 years ago is appropriate to now?

‘If I said it was sexist or anti-LGBT the council might back off.’

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